The elephant on campus
Filine needs to be used
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: Opinions/Editorial
Upon returning from winter break, college students were welcomed with the opening of the brand new Arthur Zankel Music Center. With 54,000 square feet of teaching and practice space this $32.5 million building is sure to provide music students with the facilities they need to perform at their best. With all of the excitement surrounding the Zankel building, though, very little has been said publicly about what the college plans to do with the vacant structure sitting peacefully right next door, the Filene Music Center.
Since the move, Filene is just an empty building. The college has made no public statement on how the facility will be used in future years. It is irresponsible for the college to leave Filene vacant and without a plan when so many departments desperately need extra space for their studies. Although it is impossible to quantify which department most needs the space, it is safe to say that every department at the college would benefit from an expanded work area.
Overcrowding and rapid growth demand expansion but the tough economic times pose financial limitations. Although it is difficult to configure where various departments are going to be placed, the college stands to benefit from the gift of Filene, the abandoned building can serve purpose in housing studious members of the college in some new capacity.
It should be the college's primary goal over the next month to decide what is to be done with the building. They need to make a decision and stick with it. A short-term answer would be for Filene to be cleaned, organized and opened, and then to serve as another available space through which classes can rotate. That would be a fine short-term solution. But what the college needs to focus on is to decide what to do for the long term. It would be a negative mark on the college if there were a building on campus that was left to sit idly for an extended period of time.
Whatever the college decides to do with Filene, it needs to make a decision and stick with it before the building becomes nothing more than just an unhealthy burden, a shabby structure lost in the landscape. Leaving Filene standing empty not only wastes valuable opportunity, but it additionally places an unfavorable view that Skidmore is unable to make use of its resources. Students and faculty should be excited about the Zankel Center. It's a proud day when this college is able to support a music building of that magnitude and expense. Let's not show irresponsibility by letting Filene remain unused.
Since the move, Filene is just an empty building. The college has made no public statement on how the facility will be used in future years. It is irresponsible for the college to leave Filene vacant and without a plan when so many departments desperately need extra space for their studies. Although it is impossible to quantify which department most needs the space, it is safe to say that every department at the college would benefit from an expanded work area.
Overcrowding and rapid growth demand expansion but the tough economic times pose financial limitations. Although it is difficult to configure where various departments are going to be placed, the college stands to benefit from the gift of Filene, the abandoned building can serve purpose in housing studious members of the college in some new capacity.
It should be the college's primary goal over the next month to decide what is to be done with the building. They need to make a decision and stick with it. A short-term answer would be for Filene to be cleaned, organized and opened, and then to serve as another available space through which classes can rotate. That would be a fine short-term solution. But what the college needs to focus on is to decide what to do for the long term. It would be a negative mark on the college if there were a building on campus that was left to sit idly for an extended period of time.
Whatever the college decides to do with Filene, it needs to make a decision and stick with it before the building becomes nothing more than just an unhealthy burden, a shabby structure lost in the landscape. Leaving Filene standing empty not only wastes valuable opportunity, but it additionally places an unfavorable view that Skidmore is unable to make use of its resources. Students and faculty should be excited about the Zankel Center. It's a proud day when this college is able to support a music building of that magnitude and expense. Let's not show irresponsibility by letting Filene remain unused.
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Alex
posted 2/05/10 @ 6:01 PM EST
Bitchin' op/ed! Spot on.
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